


Refrain

by shinealightonme



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Music, Radio, The Beatles - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-05-05
Updated: 2009-05-05
Packaged: 2017-10-03 19:13:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shinealightonme/pseuds/shinealightonme
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Take a sad song and make it better."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Refrain

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [](http://batgurl88.livejournal.com/profile)[**batgurl88**](http://batgurl88.livejournal.com/) with the prompt "Reid, Hey Jude." Originally posted [on LJ](http://shinealightonme.livejournal.com/37885.html).

It wasn't often that Reid got a chance to drive – Morgan made jokes about learners' permits, and Elle flat out told him "it just feels weird." But this was JJ, who wasn't that much older than Reid, and who seemed to understand that he liked getting to drive. She just handed him the keys and mentioned that she had a lot of phone calls to make.

There were other advantages to driving than just being trusted with the responsibility, he thought as he flipped through radio stations at a red light. He didn't get to ponder this much, though, because he was distracted by JJ; she'd stopped in the middle of a sentence and stared at him, eyebrow raised accusingly, until the voice on the other line managed to get her attention back. "Sorry, where was I..."

He didn't know what had offended her so badly, but he didn't have to wait too long to find out. She wrapped up that call quickly and demanded, "You got something against the Beatles?"

He had dismissed the song without much thought, and was a bit thrown by her response. "No," he shrugged, "I just...never listened to them much."

JJ's glare softened, slightly less condemning. "That is a _tragedy_," she informed him.

She was closer to the truth than she knew. He wasn't sure how to explain that the Beatles had no place in his idea of what music was – music was the songs his mother played on endless repeat, calming on the good days and puzzles on the worst, full messages and warnings to be deciphered. It was the lessons his dad made him take after his mom finally got her way and pulled him out of every sport William could think of, because at least playing the piano was a more acceptable childhood pursuit than calculus and Beowolf. Music was the modern bands all the students listened to at Cal Tech, that Reid listened to so he could feel connected to their strange lives that ran parallel to his, moving along the same slope but forever out of reach. Music was Gideon's CDs, concertos and operas and jazz ballads that he lent out and asked Reid's opinion on, testing him in some way that he never seemed able to pass.

JJ still looked a bit disgruntled, and he saw no reason that music couldn't also be something that would make her smile. He changed back to the first station, commenting, "You know, this song stayed at the top of the American charts longer than any other Beatles single."

JJ laughed. "See, you know _that_, but I bet you couldn't actually sing this, or hum along, could you?"

"I'm guessing you can?"

"Maybe," she replied, her face looking sincere and innocent, the way it only did when she was plotting something devious. He was immediately suspicious, but she was the expert at scheming, not him, and so he was unprepared when she turned to him at the end of the song and asked casually, "Hey, have you ever done karaoke?"


End file.
